Product Notes & News

Colour Gradient Background generator for NDI

Adding to out existing selection of software utilities which make use of
NewTek's NDI protocol for production video over local
networks, the NDIGradBG app generates 4-way colour gradients in various styles.
Download here.

Magewell USB Capture Plus

Adding to the existing Plug-&-Play USB Capture range (the HDMI & SDI
dongles), the new USB Capture Plus video capture devices are available in
three different versions.

HDMI - with loop through & analogue audio I/O

SDI - with loop through & analogue audio I/O

DVI - with breakout cable & analogue audio I/O

Like the existing dongles, the new Magewell
devices continue to work in Plug-&-Play mode, ensuring simple
driver-less operation and compatibility with a wide range of host software
applications. However, a software utility allows control over the video
settings in a manner similar to the Pro Capture cards.

These products are now shipping, and were
officially launched on Magewell's booth at ISE 2017 in Amsterdam, which ran from 7-10th
Feb at the RAI.

ZEN and Magewell at IBC 2016 - Amsterdam RAI 9-13 September

Martin will be in Amsterdam for the IBC 2016 exhibition and can be found (for
much of the time) on Magewell's booth C79 in Hall 5 (that's at the northern end of
the complex, to the right as you enter via the main entrances)

The Magewell booth will feature the new 4K cards along with the rest of the
product range of PCIe and USB3 video capture devices.

There will also be a demonstration of NDI, using a
Quad input Pro Capture card to ingest multiple HD input signals and transmit
them to a second PC via NDI.

NOTE:
The ZEN office in Salford will be closed for the duration of IBC in September.

Magewell Pro Capture 4K cards

Adding to the existing Pro Capture range, and sharing the same common
driver, the new 4K cards are available in four versions.

HDMI - up to 4K at up to 30fps

AIO - SDI & HDMI at 30 fps

HDMI Plus - up to 4K at 60fps

AOI Plus - 6G SDI (4Kp30) & HDMI up to 4Kp60

Magewell cards offer different features to
Blackmagic, who typically only support
broadcast video resolutions and have limited on-board processing, whereas
Magewell are aiming at other markets as well, where computer output needs to
be captured (at other resolutions - eg 2560x1440) and streaming applications, where
one input might need to be recorded and streamed at different resolutions. The Magewell cards can supply
multiple different sized streams to different host applications
simultaneously, unlike the Blackmagic cards.

Magewell USB3 Video Capture Dongle re-engineered

This
versatile pocket-sized USB3 video & audio capture device for Windows (or
Mac),
available in two versions with either HD-SDI or HDMI input, has been
re-engineered into a robust metal case (pictured above-left) with a larger USB3
connecter, replacing the original plastic-cased version (on the right)

It will auto-detect the video resolution and, in the case of the HDMI version,
accept a wide range of graphics card output sizes as well as regular broadcast
video resolutions, either SD or HD, with stereo audio.

It requires no drivers to be installed, as it emulates a standard webcam and
uses the default Microsoft drivers, making it suitable for use with any
streaming or capture software designed to allow a webcam for input. Embedded
audio is also supported and appears as a standard Windows audio recording
device. More from Magewell

Shaune Harrison Make-up Academy

We have an exciting new neighbour, co-located in the same building as
ZEN. Specialising in prosthetics for film & television, the make-up academy
will run a range of courses including:-

Basic prosthetics & bald caps

Casualty FX & wounds

Sculpting & life casting

Prosthetics & make-up SFX

Shaune is a highly experienced proponent of prosthetics, having worked on
films like Star Wars Ep1, Captain America, The DaVinci Code, World War Z,
The Fifth Element, Sleepy Hollow, Stardust, The Mummy and the Harry Potter
series.

Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera

We have a Blackmagic Pocket Cinema Camera
on demo, and have been experimenting with various (older) lenses, including building a rig to
use 2/3" B4 zoom lenses with the BMPCC. More news and
test results to
follow...

Live web streaming support services for small-scale events and webinars

ZEN Computer Services are launching a new back-end service to support live web streaming for smaller-scale events, product launches, training sessions, and suchlike. The service is aimed at video production companies and videographers with little or no prior experience of web streaming who have been asked to provide such a service as an add-on to existing video coverage.

At its simplest level, ZEN will provide the encoding equipment and operator,
and provide quality-control monitoring of the stream during transmission.

The supporting services can be extended to include audio mixing and software vision mixing, allowing multiple cameras to be used, along with caption overlays and vision inserts from virtual VTRs.
Whilst not intended as a replacement for a full OB, the system allows many of
the same elements to be included in a live web broadcast, operated from a
desktop PC, at a relatively modest cost.

Final details and rate card are still being worked on, but please phone or
email if this is of interest

Panasonic AG-AF101 test shoot - interview footage

On 10th Dec '10, Martin was invited to an open day at Holdan, who are distributors for the
AF101, the PAL-world version of the AF100. It afforded a chance to see this new
camera and perform some hands-on tests.

Martin took the opportunity to shoot an interview with Richard Payne of Holdan talking about
what Panasonic
have given us with the AG-AF101, the new micro four-thirds video camera which records to AVCHD files
from a single, large format sensor. The lens used was a Zeiss Distagon Compact Prime 35mm T2,
with lighting from an LED panel for the key, plus tungsten fill, back and background
lighting. Sound was from a 416 short gun mic on a stand, plugged directly into the camera.

Martin's
comments:-
In use, the camera is not unlike Panasonic's other handi-cams (the 151 & 171) in
many ways, but without the need to switch all the lens functions into manual
mode, should that be the way you like to work. Since this was shot at an open
day, in a relatively small space with other people present, there was not time
for me to fully explore every feature and option that the camera has to offer,
but I did want to take some footage away with me that was a little more
meaningful than just pointing the camera at whatever was around me, lit only by
the standard fluorescent house lighting. I hope this video gives some flavour as
to the image quality of which this camera is capable when combined with
quality lenses.

Part of the team at the IOV VideoSkills Roadshows

This year Martin has been one of the trainers at the
IOV Videoskills Roadshows,
aimed at helping videographers improve their basic
skills. In the course of the day the topics covered include lighting, sound, camerawork and
editing, with a two-handed interview as the sample subject matter. This is the
resulting video from the Naas event.
Shot on a Canon XF305 and recorded in their 50MB/s 4:2:2 MPEG2 "BBC-approved"
compression format. Edited in
Premiere CS5. Lit with Kinoflo Diva 400 and Dedolights, and recorded on a 416
mic on a boom, connected directly to the XF305 camcorder.

Lighting in modern office buildings

Inspired by the techniques shown at the
IOV Videoskills Roadshows,
in this short video Martin talks about, and
demonstrates, the benefits of using lighting when filming in modern office
buildings. With modern cameras able to get a well exposed picture in fairly low
light, it's easy to forget what a difference lighting can make.

The changing face of Manchester

Those of you who have bought systems from us in the last few years may be
familiar with our "Manchester Skyline" Windows wallpaper image (left) taken
in January 2003 (from outside our old premises in Salford Quays). There has
been a huge increase in residential building in the city since then,
including the Beetham Tower, so we thought we'd offer an updated image from
Summer 2006 (right).

Looking back at Caption Generation ...

Back in the days before microprocessors, Character Generators were members of
the Graphics Department armed with sheets of Letraset and cardboard. The
finished caption cards were then handed over to the stage crew who acted as
"Caption Pullers". For a title caption sequence, cards were stacked in shooting
order alternately into two separate piles (like A/B film rolls) and placed on
blackboard-style easels somewhere in the studio. Two cameras (and cameramen)
would be assigned to shooting the captions, with the Vision Mixer switching
between them. As soon as the red light went out on the camera, the Caption
Puller would pull the top caption off the pile and the cameraman would frame up
on the one underneath.

The more complicated captions were made as a multi-layer cardboard sandwich,
with holes in the front layer behind which cardboard tabs could be pulled out to
reveal additional text or images beneath. Each one had to be individually made
by hand and, with a few exceptions like the opening/closing station logo, could
rarely be used again. (read more...)

For some people, their experience of recording sound starts with making
wedding videos or recording other live events. As a sound recordist, youíre there to capture whatever is happening,
as best you can. Getting better sound under those conditions
usually involves better equipment, or making better use of what youíve already
got. But not all shoots are like that, and itís easy to fall into the trap of
thinking thatís the only way of working. What Iím saying is that whenever you
can have any control over your environment, you should try to make use of it.

Directors and
cameramen donít make things easy. Sound is rarely seen as being as important as
the pictures, and the soundman is well down the production hierarchy, so you
have to learn to be assertive (but tactful). With few exceptions, no-one else on
location actually listens to sound objectively. The human brain is remarkably
good at rejecting unwanted noise when it suits us, and locations are usually
chosen on the basis of how they look, not how they sound. Camera lenses offer
100% rejection of anything out of shot, but microphones don't, no matter how
directional you think they are. So donít just accept shooting in a noisy location without exploring
the alternatives. Continued - read more...

Here at ZEN we have successfully used AVG Anti
Virus for many years on
our PCs, and can definitely recommend it!

What we're about . . .
ZEN is not a traditional Audio-Visual dealer who started selling computers,
nor is it a computer shop that also sells video products. You won't
get any salesmen giving you the "hard-sell" when you call, just
straightforward advice and information - which for some callers is the
knowledge that they don't need to buy whatever it is they thought they
needed! Above all you'll be dealing with someone with a wide range of
experience and knowledge of both PCs and video production. We're not the
biggest, nor necessarily the cheapest, but we are one of the longest
established computer/video specialists in the UK.

Company history . . .
ZEN was started in the 1980s by Martin Kay, then working for ITV at
Granada's Manchester studios, who built his first 6502-based computer in
1979 from an Ohio Scientific kit, bought in the USA whilst working as a
Sound Recordist on a
film shoot for World In Action. With the advent of the Amiga, which could be gen-locked
to a video source, Martin started writing a variety of video-related software. This
included subtitling & tele-prompting, ident clocks, scoring software for
sports & gameshows, and specialist software to mimic other computer
displays for
use in TV film dramas like Cracker, Prime Suspect and A Touch of Frost.
Martin left Granada in 1993 to concentrate on his computer-video activities
with ZEN, following a natural path into non-linear editing systems,
for many years the main business activity, although he still maintains an active
interest in video production.